Division I Men

Hopkins Attack, Defense Leads in Win Over Towson

from press release

TOWSON, Md. – Visiting Johns Hopkins got
eight goals and four assists from its starting attack unit and held
host Towson scoreless for nearly 27 minutes midway through the game
as the fourth-ranked Blue Jay lacrosse team posted a 12-6 victory
over the Tigers Saturday night at Unitas Stadium. The win is the
18th straight for the Blue Jays against the Tigers and improves
Hopkins' record to 2-0 on the year. Towson slips to 0-2 with the
loss.

The Blue Jays scored the final two goals of the first half to
give themselves a 6-3 halftime lead and then added the first four
of the second half to push out to what proved to be an
insurmountable 10-3 lead early in the fourth quarter.

All three of the Blue Jays' goals in the third quarter came in
the first five minutes of the period as Hopkins seized control of
what had been a tight game. An unassisted goal by Brandon Benn less
than three minutes into the second half was followed less than a
minute later by an extra-man goal from freshman Ryan Brown. When
junior midfielder Rex Sanders ripped a shot home less than 90
seconds later after a beautiful split dodge at the top of the box,
the Blue Jays had doubled their three-goal halftime lead.

Benn capped a four-goal night with an extra-man goal of his own
just 22 seconds into the fourth quarter to make it 10-3, but Towson
goal back-to-back goals from Greg Cuccinello and Robby Zoppo in a
36-second span to slice the deficit to 10-5.

The Tigers would get no closer than five the rest of the way as
Phil Castronova and Zach Palmer sandwiched goals around an
extra-man goal by Cory Dobyns in the final seven minutes to account
for the 12-6 final.

The third quarter surge matched a game-opening spree by the Blue
Jays as sophomore Wells Stanwick helped stake JHU to a 3-0 lead at
the end of the first quarter as he had a hand in all three JHU
strikes in the opening 15 minutes. He needed less than a minute to
open the scoring as senior John Ranagan found him cutting across
the crease and he went behind the back to give JHU a 1-0 lead just
53 seconds into the game. The 1-0 lead held for more than eight
minutes before Stanwick came from behind the goal and beat Towson
goalie Andrew Wascavage from in tight to make it 2-0 and then
completed his three-point first quarter with a nifty pass to the
crease that Benn one-timed home to give the Blue Jays the
three-goal lead.

The Tigers grabbed some momentum and trimmed the deficit to 4-3
with a 3-1 run in the first six minutes of the second quarter. An
extra-man goal from Dobyns put the Tigers on the board with 13:19
remaining in the period, but senior Palmer answered with JHU's
first man down goal since 2008 less than a minute later to push the
lead back to three.

Two-thirds of that three-goal lead were gone less than three
minutes later as Cuccinello and Thomas DiNapoli scored unassisted
goals from virtually the same spot on the field just to JHU goalie
Pierce Bassett's right to make it 4-3 with more than nine minutes
remaining in the opening half.

The Blue Jays pushed the lead back to three by halftime as
Stanwick fed Benn for his second of the game and junior Rob Guida
blew a laser past Wascavage with the Blue Jays man-up to make it
6-3 at the half.

The lead went from three to six less than five minutes into the
second half as JHU used a 6-0 run bridging the second and third
quarters to put the game away. The Tigers were held scoreless from
the 9:32 mark of the second quarter until Cuccinello's goal early
in the fourth.

Stanwick's four points (2g, 2a) are a career-high, while Benn's
four goals were one shy of his career high and mark his sixth
career hat trick. Palmer rounded out JHU's trio of starting
attackmen with four points on two goals and two assists.

Senior Mike Poppleton was again strong on faceoffs as he won
12-of-17 and grabbed six ground balls, while Bassett posted 12
saves in goal for the Blue Jays, who held advantages in shots
(40-38) and ground balls (32-24).

Dobyns and Cuccinello led Towson with two goals apiece and
Wascavage posted 13 saves in goal, but the Tigers solved Bassett
only three times in even strength situations and the mid-game
drought was more than they could overcome.